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Louisiana Towns Going High-Tech
wolverineinspector writes "Mink, LA is finally getting telephone land lines after the neighbouring communities got theirs in 1970. In the article they also say that as many as 6.2% of US homes don't have phone service - that would mean that 19 million Americans don't have wired phone lines available to them."
Just because 6.2% of people don't have wired phones doesn't mean that the service isn't available to them. A lot of people ditch their wired lines and just use their cell phone.
" 6.2% of US homes don't have phone service "
Does this include the number of people who have cellphones that dont want a land line.
Or how about the people that just dont want a land line. Or get digital phone service from their cable provider.
TruePunk | Games
It's not just about voice: xDSL services also run over landlines. In the UK wireless broadband services are almost always significantly more expensive than wired, and are often considered as a last resort solution. Even with the considerably more dispersed population of the bulk of the US, I doubt that things are much different on the other side of the pond.
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
Both the Chinese and the Indians support massive numbers of abortions targetting female fetuses. You tell me. Who is the barbarian?
The posting's title was obviously sarcastic.
quidquid latine dictum sit altum videtur.
The reason I don't have a phone is that when I built my house, the regional bell would not hook up a new phone service unless I provided them with copies of 2 of the following 3 documents: drivers license, social security card, birth certificate. I explained to them that the grocer and gas station and numerous other businesses don't demand to keep my personal information on file in order to allow me to buy from them. The woman I was talking to informed me that if I wanted a phone I didn't have a choice in the matter. I begged her pardon but I do have a choice. Bye bye Ameritech. You've lost a customer for life. I found I am much happier without a phone anyway. In the year and a half since then I have not had one telemarketing call disturb my dinner or television shows and I have other things I can spend $30 a month on like high speed internet access.
It all gets paid for by federal grants.
Hm, I wonder how many of these people moved out to the country because they wanted to "get the government off their backs", or were looking for lower taxes...
94% of Repubs and 21% of Dems voted to renew the Patriot Act
Don't mean a dammed thing... Telephones come under the definition of UTILITY. Meaning, that the CLEC has no option that if a client wants telephone service installed, they have to run the dammed wires to the utility drop at the property line, no matter if it means 2 miles off of the road or 20. Then it's up to the client to finish the run to his home via any method that he/she can find, by either running the lead-in via poles or bury the bloody thing. The telephone company CANNOT deny ANYONE service based upon location, that is FEDERAL Law.
If they bitch, take it up the ladder to the next in command, and keep it up until you find a joker that will help you out.
If that fails, call, email, or write to your state PUC and drop the hammer on the telco's head, HARD!
These money-grubbing weasels will try to wriggle out of ANY money-losing opportunity that they can, even at the expense of a customers life.
First rule of holes; When in one, stop digging.
Kind of like blogs, really.
Those who sacrifice security to condemn liberty deserve to repeat history or something. - Benjamin Santayana
In past surveys, one of the major reasons that people do not have telephones is financial. Poor people often have bad credit, the telephone company wants all old bills paid before restoring service, the telephone company wants a large deposit, the head-of-household is unable to control usage of the telephone by other family members and visitors, and the cost is unpredictable. A typical scenario is that a household gets a telephone, the service gets abused for long distance and other premium calls, the household gets a large bill that they can't pay, the bill doesn't get paid, resulting in termination of service and a poor credit reference. Restoration of service would be expensive and would just setup the household for another cycle of abuse and disconnection. As a solution, some people have suggested requiring the telephone company to offer a fixed-cost service that would have permanent blocks for long distance and premium calls. The bill would be guaranteed to be $X a month, no matter how the phone was used.
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